“I lie awake and dread the lonely nights I’m not alone I wonder if these heavy eyes Can face the unknown” —From “Dream Warriors” by Dokken As a child of the 80’s, I found that horror movies made certain aspects of my life more difficult. Friday the 13th (1980) ruined lakes for me. Poltergeist (1982) kept me from looking […]
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“There’s nothing highThere’s nothing lowThere’s being, and nothingness is our flow.” –from “I’m Nothing” by Violent Femmes Emptiness is, to use a clinical term, a mindf*ck. On the one hand, emptiness is the stuff of existential nightmares – a forbidding black hole that sucks us up and sucks us dry. And we’ll do anything to avoid the
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Throughout her life, Olya Viglione, the singer and piano player of the band Scarlet Sails, has had people telling her what to be and what to do. This started in her native Moscow, where Viglione felt that there was little room for individuality in Russian culture. “We were a communist country for such a long
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As I was watching the movie, Who The F*ck Is That Guy: The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago, written and directed by Drew Stone, I was amazed by Michael’s many accomplishments: that he shattered stereotypes by being an openly gay man in the heavy metal and punk rock community; that he worked as an A&R executive for Elektra and
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“We’ve lost all contact All connections are cut” From “Situation on Mars” by Swing Kids Community is like a blanket. It can either be warm and comforting or too hot and smothering, depending on how it’s used. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s both. One of the most difficult issues to navigate in building our social support system
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Look what I did, I made a mess Blood on my hands is sentimental Could be that I was just depressed It’s never going to end, no…” —From “Blow Me” by The Used For Bert McCracken—singer and vocalist of The Used—music and emotion are one and the same. In fact, when asked whether he considered The Used
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Liam Wilson of The Dillinger Escape Plan is a searcher. Whether it’s playing bass, practicing yoga or living vegan — Wilson is looking for answers. And in doing so he’s discovered that the process of searching and questioning is as important as the answers themselves. From an early age, Wilson remembers being curious about the world. Wilson told me:
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“I carried you to a new place / Where you were able to hide / And picked away at the newness / You weren’t able to find” —From “Distraction” by Porcupine How does hardcore age? I don’t mean the music per se – as far as I’m concerned the ferocious sound of hardcore punk bands
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“I’ll watch and pray, ’cause everybody has to die someday.” — from “Anchor” by BirdEatsBaby Mishkin Fitzgerald has never been one to take a conventional path. Fitzgerald is the lead singer and songwriter of the alternative “indie noir” band BirdEatsBaby. The band has an innovative and unique sound, which has been described as “punk rock meets
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Jason Becker’s creative force can’t be contained. Becker is widely considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, establishing himself through his work with his band Cacophony and later going on to work with David Lee Roth and embarking on a solo career. Becker eventually developed Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, making him
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